City Bonding
by Omicron the IceQueen
Summary: Level Workers: Bonding with a Metrotitan is a very big step, even if you've waited your whole life for it. Octane just can't stop wiggling inside with each step closer to the core.


Story Co-Authered by Ultra Rodimus

**City Bonding**

Another long swipe of blue, curling around to...there... Rhythm Runner stepped back, tilting her head to one side and then another. She blinked a few times, and sighed. The femme tucked her wings in close, setting the painter aside, stepping aside and placed her hands on the next section of the wall.

Leaning against it Rhythm Runner rested her helm against the wall, "Thank you for putting up with me doing this big mech." She said.

A deep, soft rumble vibrated the wall and the decking under the femme's feet. **_"You are quite welcome,"_** was the response. The titan's voice was soft so as not to hurt her by accident, though the vibrations of his speech still vibrated her plating ever so slightly.

More so with her being a glider, but the once messenger didn't mind as she turned and slid down to sit with legs drawn up, back and wings flushed with the wall. Rhythm Runner was well named and any kind of rhythm she loved. "Do you know where we're going now?"

**_"I don't know,"_** Metroplex confessed. **_"Is there any place safe to go?"_** His wall twitched in the city-mode version of a shrug. **_"It's been a very, very long time since I last left Cybertron. Things have... changed greatly since then."_** His tone on the last comment suggested massive understatement.

"I stayed close to the surface level." Rhythm Runner said, smoothing her hands over her shell art. "And focused more on dancing and art. For out in space, we should talk to my big idiot about it."

**_"Once he stops running around long enough to ask,"_** Metroplex replied, rumbling softly in amusement. The colossal mech was silent for a moment before speaking again. **_"Just after Octane woke me back on Cybertron, you said he'd been PM to another Metrotitan." _**

"One of the Unicronian stations," The femme nodded as she turned around to sit more upside down, legs stretched out on the wall but now she could fan out her wings on the floor to feel the vibrations as Metroplex spoke, "Trypticon in fact, before Megatron invaded, and before the bond ceremony, and then they corrupted him. Octane was forced into being a transport."

**"Before_ the bond ceremony_**?" Metroplex repeated. **_"So Octane was never bonded to Trypticon?"_**

"No, Skyfire and Starscream were getting ready for it, as the commanders, but it never happened." Rhythm Runner looked at her hands as she fitted with them, "He was depressed for lone time, if we weren't bonded I think he may have been stupid enough to try and get back to him, then we started hording energon."

Metroplex's thoughtful hum made the deck tremble against her wings. **_"I was wondering if he had bonded to his former partner. It's been... a long time since I last had a partner. Longer than the last time I've been off Cybertron."_**

Rhythm Runner stretched her arms over her head and rubbed her fingers on the floor. "Not even the light bonds of commanders?" she ask, voice sympathetic, being mates with Octane she had been learning about Metrotitans, though didn't know all of it yet.

**_"No."_** There was a sad harmonic in Metroplex's voice. **_"Not in a very long time. Eventually those assigned as my commanders started seeing me as being... less than sentient. It was about then that I went into stasis and remained asleep." _**

"How can _anyone_ think of you less than a connection to Primus?" She lowered her few shields to and stretched out her senses, felling the power of the city's energy field, trying to show her love for him as well as care despite the short time living with Metroplex. Though Rhythm Runner wasn't sure she was more than a comparative speck to his spark.

**_"There are those who saw me as just as talking piece of machinery."_** Ice edged the Metrotitan's tone for a moment. **_"It became easier for them to ignore me after I settled down as a city core and hadn't transformed in years." _**

Twisting and using a dance move to get back to her pedes, Runner pressed against the nearer wall again, "Some mechs can be blind Metroplex," She rubbed the side of her helm against the panel, attempting to assure, "You are a protector, you are our spiritual link to Primus and the world we cannot go back to. You are our home and our new life. All of us know that without you, we all would have died on Cybertron."

**_"And without all of you, I would never have survived, either,"_** was the soft murmured response as the titan's field wrapped around the small femme in his version of a hug.

The glider's wings twitched and fanned lightly in response, loving the sensation. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

For a long moment, Metroplex was silent. **_"Do you think Octane would be willing to bond with me?"_** His voice was hesitant.

"I think you will have him attached to your face again, even in city form," She snickered softly, "Yes, I think Octane would love it... Metro?"

**_"Hm?"_** The cityformer hummed softly.

"I don't know all of the bonds or what's involved with the them and you Metrotitans..." She hesitated a moment, "What would happen to the spark bond that Octane and I have?"

The energy field wrapped around her pulsed gently, **_"It will not be harmed or intruded upon. What you have is a mate-bond. On a completely different level than what forms between a Metrotitan and his partner." _**

"I don't think it will hurt in any way, and I know that Octane is strong enough...just not me." Rhythm Runner turned to put her back the wall, glancing at the nearest camera, "No offence Plexy-Baby but you're very strong after all, and I do have a lot of mortal fears."

**_"I won't hurt you."_** Metroplex's voice became even softer.

"I know you won't if you can help it," she leaned into the energy field again for comfort, "Just be careful, I have a very light spark... want to pester Octane about this?"

The cityformer's purr made his metal quiver. **_"Think you can corner him long enough for us to ask?"_**

"Tell him I have blue energon goodies for him, what room do you need us, or just him at?" The femme tilted her head at the camera, knowing that after... well, nothing happening in the past while, Octane would all but skip to the location at that old code.

**_"The city commander's office is vacant, and private enough for this particular conversation."_** The cityformer pinged her the coordinates. **_"It's on the level below the main command deck."_**

The femme gathered up her things and what couldn't be subspaced was neatly arranged against the wall for when she came back. Then Rhythm Runner transformed into her glider mode, flicked her wings to get into the warmer air flow Metroplex had in place now for her. She made it before Octane and promptly started investigating and poking around.

"This all is for one person?" She asked looking around and spinning on one foot pede.

**_"This was where the mechs who were assigned as my commanders did their business. Some were... showier than others,"_** Metroplex replied, referring to the massive desk, a few old pieces of art on the walls, and the padded office chair.

Rhythm Runner hopped up and wiggled her aft into the chair, paused and then burst out laughing at the size difference, "Octane would have room to spare in this! Is he running or driving here?"

**_"You think this is bad, you should have seen the commanders' quarters before I made them clean up."_** Now Metroplex sounded amused. **_"He just flew up one of my lift shafts." _**

"I don't know how much energy he'll have after the bonding, but I think you might have some new footage to porn stash." The femme said, "You just told him he was going to get to mate."

Metroplex chuckled. **_"This is going to be interesting." _**

"Oy! Fliiiiiter!" The mech in question called, looking around with wings arched up and the ends vibrating. "Plexy-Baby, I thought you said she was here..." He poked his head into the room and brightened.

Rhythm Runner waved from the chair, "Hello lover, come over here, and close the door." And Octane almost teleported in, "Metroplex wanted to ask you something."

Octane paused mid-bounce, optics widening, "What? Is something wrong?" the triple changer's energy field spasmed in fear of rejection or worse if he'd missed something that needed repairing.

**_"Nothing's wrong,"_** the cityformer replied, chuckling to himself at his new PM's behavior. **_"Runner and I were talking while she was working on one of the murals, and the conversation wandered in an interesting, if personal, direction." _**

"Personal?" Octane echoed, frowning a bit as he tried to place why there was a thrill running in his energon. Enough that he had to pace around, trailing a hand along a wall.

The wall vibrated against his palm. Metroplex hummed softly. **_"She told me that Trypticon was taken from you before you and he could be bonded." _**

Octane stopped, one hand still on the wall as his wings dropped, "...yes, Megatron didn't want the little guy being influence by anyone but him..." He walked over to kneel down in front of the chair, folding his arms over it, "I come from a space-birthed and made clan Plexy-Baby, we sort of specialize in being PMs. I was told all my life that I would be Tryticon's...and it did hurt not to be. No offence, I love ya Metroplex."

Another hum vibrated through the walls. **_"I had heard of such clans, but when I went into stasis they were more story than fact. Back then it was... something of a standard procedure for city commanders to be transferred between cities. Few formed more than a cursory bond with their Metrotitans."_** Metroplex was silent for a long minute, seeming to chew on something.

"I think my clan started producing after you went into stasis," Octane estimate, kissing his mate's knees and then palms, "Now those of my, and the last few generations, tend to live our lives with one Metrotitan."

"He wants you, you big idiot." Rhythm Runner snorted, leaning forward to kiss Octane's helm and smiled as his wings perked up again. "And I'm willing to share, Plexy-Baby." she added looking up.

The hum eased into a cautious purr. **_"I had wondered if you would be willing to consider bonding with me." _**

Octane was still a moment before pulling his mate close, wrapping his arms around the femme as he couldn't attach himself easily to the city-former. A warble of pleasure slipped out of the tanker as he opened his energy field and dropped his shields. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, _yes_!" He chanted as Metroplex's field wrapped around Octane in return, the city-former humming his own pleasure and making his entire frame vibrate, much to the confusion of his other residents.

Rhythm Runner nuzzled her mate's helm, "What do we do my triple?"

Octane looked up, purring, "That's up to you Big Mech, on how we bond. My sire said it depends on the 'titan."

**_"I'm the oldest Metrotitan. In my case, it would require spark contact."_** The cityformer's tone was hesitant.

"...kinky..." Octane grunted as his mate smacked him. "What? It is!" He scooped up the painted femme and cradled his mate as he stood. The tanker tilted his head down at her and reached through their bond, after a moment he looked up, "Where do we go Plexy-Baby?"

The databurst that promptly pinged Octane's personal comm was highly secured and encrypted, but that was no surprise. Every Cybertronian was cautious about letting anyone near their spark, the most vital and irreplaceable part of them. The coordinates in the databurst were for deep inside Metroplex's core, where his armor was thickest.

Octane sorted to codes before he started off, following the instructions while boosting his mate up to his shoulder. When he came to a shaft, the mech peered down, "This way?"

Lights flickered on along the shaft, leading to a hatch at the bottom. **_"Yes." _**

The mech hummed and stepped out into the air dropping into a free fall and grinning. His thrusters flared and he spun in a slow circle with his mate as she floated down after him, using his air trails. The two unable to help the playful moment as they descended deeper into Metroplex, still with shields down and fields open. The armor plating of walls and decks was clearly much thicker, the doors and entrances heavily secured. This was where Metroplex's vital processors were housed, buried deep inside his frame under his thickest and heaviest armor. Getting anywhere near that vital machinery would take an incredible amount of effort, even from another Metrotitan. Most of the corridors were dark. Lights flickered to life along the path Octane was to follow.

The silver and purple mech waited long enough to let his mate perch on him before tailing after the lights. At one spot Octane lingered, attracted by the flow of energon on a massive scale that he hadn't felt in a long while.

"You know he's going to get everywhere he can fit his wings into now Metroplex," Rhythm Runner said as she balanced, the mech leaning against a thick wall.

Metroplex chuckled, the sound echoing all around the pair. **_"Of that I have no doubt." _**

Up ahead was the heaviest and most heavily secured door yet. Clearly it protected something of great importance. Octane paused before he blinked, and moved slowly that way, wing tips trembling the whole time. The mech pressed his hands to that place and crooned softly, "Primus..."

"Nearly," the femme agreed with all of her own spark.

The sound of heavy locks disengaging echoed loudly down the corridor. The door, when it finally opened, proved to be at least as thick as Octane's leg, and it probably weighed nearly two-thirds what the tanker did. Behind that door was a fair-sized chamber lined with banks of machinery, and in the center was a crystalline column containing a great sphere of white-gold energy.

"Oh Plexy-Baby..." Octane breathed, placing each step carefully as he treaded over to the column. The mech hesitantly placed his hands on the clear crystal, his optics staying locked on the spark that was larger than himself. His own spark trembled and reached for the wall of power and promise of love like and unlike what he shared already. "You're so _beautiful_..."

Threads of energy reached out from that spark, brushing against the inside of its crystal cage under Octane's palms. Metroplex's soft purr made the air itself vibrate, ringing in soft notes from the crystal surface. After a long moment, nearly invisible seams became clearer as the great spark chamber began to open.

Rhythm Runner clung to her mate's shoulders and wings. She couldn't resist and let out a keen that turned into a tone, singing back to him as Octane shivered with the vibrations around them, one hand stay in place, the other scrabbling at his chest plate. ~Only if you want...~ he said though the bond.

~I want you to be the happiest idiot.~ Rhythm Runner smiled and pushed at the back of the mech's head.

"What do you want us to do Plexy-Baby?" Octane asked, but the tone was almost begging him for instruction of what to do.

Crystal plates as long as Octane was tall shifted out of the way. With nothing to block it, Metroplex's energy field swept out, wrapping around tanker and glider in an almost physical embrace.

**_"Step inside, let your spark touch mine,"_** the cityformer murmured. **_"Be sure to keep in mind that I am to be your partner, not your mate. I do not wish to usurp Runner's place in your spark." _**

"I could love you like my flitter, oh Primus..." The mech shivered, reaching out to run his hands over the nearly solid energy. Octane could hear his mate crooning in counterpoint to him on his back. Just maybe the mates might be able to keep their solid bond and the new one as well. Octane cycled air to cool his system, but stopped because the warmth of Metroplex's spark was just right. He shivered again and pulled his mate down after loosening his chest plates, Octane edged closer.

Threads of light from Metroplex's spark reached out, brushing over purple and white armor, poking at the seams of the tanker's chest plates. More threads curled around Octane's hands, weaving between his fingers. One slid over his shoulder to brush lightly against Rhythm Runner, then curled loosely around Octane's wing. The mech sucked in a cycle of air, tilting his head back Octane arching his back and let his chest plates open and the inner shell of the spark chamber sliding open as well. Through the bond he could feel Rhythm Runner doing the same as she was almost draped over his shoulder. The held wing arched higher and Octane stepped closer, reaching out to the gold and white spark.

The golden-white spark's corona reached out, wrapping gently around both Octane and Runner. Through the intense connection they could feel the _age_ and the_ power_ that was Metroplex, keeping his touch light so as not to overwhelm them. Carefully he reached out to them, wrapping threads of his very spark around theirs, drawing out threads of theirs to touch his in turn.

Rhythm Runner rose to stand on Octane's shoulders, her wings unfolding to get caught up in the Metrotitan's hold. She had to center herself by getting a firm hold on her mate's love and he to her, but faced with the raw but controlled power, she was willing to give Metroplex the chance to join their bond a bit deeper. Maybe influenced by Octane, but to have that love and care?

Metroplex's purr ran through a half dozen different pitches as he welcomed the pair into his spark, tiny pieces of his own great spark merging with theirs. Warmth spread through all three as the bonds formed, weaving together.

Octane keened in pleasure and a little bit of pain, almost falling forward into the massive sphere. ~Primus, Primus, Primus- he's so old and its everything can you feel it flitter?~ he asked, and then shivered in delicious joy at hearing another voice.

Amusement threaded through Octane's spark, coming through the new connection to Metroplex. ~**Welcome, Octane, Runner,**~ the giant mech crooned softly.

~You are Primus,~ Rhythm Runner reached out to lean against the living energy, ~Warm and strong, and everything I ever thought.~

Laughter came from Octane as he looked back, full of love for his mate, and for the city-former. He shivered his wings, and then couldn't help the secondary heat that grew under his spark and...elsewhere. He grinned at his mate. ~Kinky.~

~I don't know if he wants us to bond or interface here under and half in his spark.~

~Aww...~

Metroplex laughed softly, echoes ringing off the crystal of his spark chamber and sending pure tones ringing through the room. ~**Not Primus, but you can see why my kind have long been considered the link between Cybertronians and Primus.**~ Warmth wrapped around their sparks. Sensing the heat building in both, he laughed again. ~**The touch of sparks was enough to form the bond. It will deepen on its own now, as much as it is permitted to.**~

The purple mech pulled his mate down, still curled in the energies of Metroplex's spark Octane wrapped his arms around Rhythm Runner as he leaned back, ~Oh Plexy-Baby, can we stay here for a little longer please?~

~**As long as you don't burn yourselves out,**~ the Metrotitan murmured, crystal chimes echoing around them.

~Cuddle, cuddle...unless _cuddles_ are allowed?~

~**Cuddling each other is always allowed**,~ was the soft response. Metroplex's spark glowed brighter, sending darts of rainbow light around the chamber as the facets of the crystal spark casing caught and split the brilliance.

As fascinated and entranced as Rhythm Runner, Octane kept his chest plates open and spark exposed. He very gently pulled his mate up, as she was doing the same, and reached out with his spark to touch hers. The mech was reinforcing their life bond as well as offering strength. Octane had done this once before when in Metroplex, but the city-former had been still so low on energy. With Rhythm Runner having a 'light' spark, it was in another term weaker than normal, and the bond she had with Octane was not just for their love of each other but the femme relied on him to stay alive.

However, with that little bit that Metroplex gave the two, Rhythm Runner felt stronger than ever. Like the first she and Octane had bonded, and she was happy to curl up in the mech's arms. Turning a bit to watch and commit everything to memory.


End file.
